What is it about?
It would be difficult to select two famous psychologists who were more different in their lives and work than Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner. Yet, both developed highly original psychologies that reflected typically American conceptions of, and concerns about freedom and control. These were concerns that related directly to their own life experiences. Rogers’ person-centered psychology reflected his life-long desire to express himself to others, especially in intimate personal relationships. Skinner’s operant behaviorism related to his attempts to control himself in his personal and professional life. In both cases, personal and interpersonal life experience cannot be separated from scientific and professional accomplishment. So deep were these life-work connections that both Rogers and Skinner employed essentially the same strategies they used in their own lives and work in attempts to improve personal, interpersonal, and community life in general.
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Why is it important?
Understanding life-work relationships in the lives of influential psychologists is both interesting and instructive with respect to understanding the origins of psychological theories and methods.
Perspectives
I first became interested in the work and lives of Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner as an undergraduate in Psychology at the University of Alberta during the late 1960s. At the same time, during summer breaks, I witnessed applications of their ideas and methods in my work as an institutional attendant at The Alberta Hospital Ponoka, a large psychiatric institution sixty miles south of Edmonton. Since then, I have continued to study their works and lives. I believe I have learned a great deal from both that has and continues to be invaluable to me in my own life and work.
Jack Martin
Simon Fraser University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Carl Rogers’ and B. F. Skinner’s approaches to personal and societal improvement: A study in the psychological humanities., Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, November 2017, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/teo0000072.
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